Suicide-prevention fence planned for Aurora Bridge

Donna Gordon Blankinship, The Associated Press

Updated 10:00 pm, Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Gov. Chris Gregoire is hoping to take the Aurora Bridge off the list of most popular spans for committing suicide, by putting $1.4 million in her supplemental budget proposal to begin building an 8-foot suicide-prevention fence on the historic landmark.

More than 40 people are known to have jumped off the bridge in the past decade. Most years, three or four people jump, although nine leapt to their deaths in 2006, tying 1972 as the worst year on record for known suicides from the Aurora Bridge.

The Seattle bridge has the second-highest number of bridge suicides in the nation, Gregoire said, but doesn't come close to No. 1, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, where about 25 people are known to jump to their deaths each year.

"Installation of an 8-foot suicide-prevention fence with illumination on the Aurora Avenue Bridge will help make the bridge safer and can help prevent suicides," the governor said in budget documents released Tuesday.

She said she plans to put additional dollars in her budget proposal for the 2009-2011 budget period, and estimated the total cost of the project would be $7.5 million.

The half-mile bridge, built in 1931 carries state Route 99 over water at its highest point, 155 feet above the channel connecting Lake Union and the Lake Washington Ship Canal north of downtown.

Many jumpers fall on solid ground, sometimes onto a parking lot in a former warehouse district that has evolved into a trendy area full of office buildings, shops and restaurants.